With Pure Egyptian Cotton (The Paper's Shot to Pieces)
by R. Donald James Gauvreau
Summary: This is how the world ends, with fire and hurt and a video game that didn't belong (knowledge of Animorphs probably required, knowledge of Homestuck... not as much)
1. Disk One: The Streets and All the Trees

_A/N Okay, okay, I'm sorry, but this just wouldn't leave me. Not at all. So it's here, it's on the screen and out of my head, and now I can think about other things. _

_Unlike how I prefer to do things, this story will update as it is written. There is a plot, things will be moving toward an end, but chapters will be presented non-linearly and may at times be character studies as much as anything else. The story is less about where the kids are going than how they're getting there and what's happening to them._

_The story takes place some time after The Attack (#26). The exact timing will be established later._

_Read this at my Archive of Our Own account if you want to see the crummy sprite art that'll be accompanying some/most/all of the chapters. _

**Disk one: Genesis**

**Chapter one: The Streets and All the Trees**

Your name is MARCO. It is not your BIRTHDAY today, but you are going to get a gift anyway. You and all your friends. From Santa Claus. A blue SPACE WIZARD Santa Claus with a DORKY NAME.

You're not specifically expecting this to happen, but it's six in the evening and nothing WEIRD has gone down yet today, so you figure that it's about time for something to happen already. This is why you're checking your watch every few minutes, incidentally.

You really don't know what you're going to do if you go to bed tonight without anything WEIRD having happened.

You have a variety of INTERESTS, all of which are VERY COOL. You like READING COMICS. You like PLAYING VIDEO GAMES, which you are definitely the BEST at. You most certainly do not like FIGHTING A SECRET GUERILLA WAR against your ALIEN WOULD-BE OVERLORDS, but seeing as how there are in fact PARASITIC BRAIN SLUGS everywhere you suppose that you're just going to have to deal with it.

On the bright side, another alien gave you and your friends the power to change into other kinds of animals, which is VERY COOL, probably even on the level of Spider-Man.

And then you became pals with that alien's brother and son (and the son… wasn't an alien? yeah…), but that's ANOTHER STORY.

You have some DADDY ISSUES because your father fell into depression after your mom died and you basically had to raise yourself. He's better now, though. You have some MOMMY ISSUES, on account of her not really being dead but actually just INFESTED with one of those PARASITIC BRAIN SLUGS that got mentioned earlier. She hasn't gotten better yet.

Screw this. You just have ADULT ISSUES, okay? This is why you pretend to be dumber than you really are, because you've noticed that adults will ignore you if you're NOT IMPORTANT, and if they ignore you then they can't be a PROBLEM.

Your Web Access America username used to be Cassie98, but that got confusing (JUST AS PLANNED) because one of your other friends has that same name, so you changed it to WGorilla99, which is a reference that none of your friends will ever get because not even Jake has read that comic.

Especially not the friend that's an alien (and also blue, but not a SPACE WIZARD).

MARCO: Stop thinking about yourself and look at your watch again

You note, with equal parts satisfaction, worry, and annoyance, that the minute hand on your watch has only two minutes ahead. And if that weren't enough to be suspicious, the second hand has stopped moving altogether.

Also, the pigeons that like to take a crap on your feet are pretty frozen. You'd be lying if you said that wasn't a big hint as well.

You weren't expecting the SPACE WIZARD before, but the whole TIME FREEZE-Y THING is kind of his CALLING CARD so you're ready for anything. Or so you'd like to tell yourself. Honestly, all you know is that you know nothing when it comes to this guy. One time you had to save a planet of PARASITIC BRAIN SLUGS THAT LIKED SHOPPING, which was such a ridiculous adventure that you finally had to put up your "I think I can accurately expect what this guy is gonna do next" hat for good.

MARCO: Watch out for EXPLODING CHOCOLATE MILK

You don't know where the thought of that came from, but you reckon that it's not a bad idea. After all, every time you've thought that the last CRAZY couldn't be topped, the universe sidled up over to you and said

"Hello.

"I'm the universe.

"And I'd like to prove you wrong."

So far, the score is something like Marco: 0, Universe: ∞

And it doesn't disappoint this time, either, because here comes the universe's top SPACE WIZARD, the Grand Poobah of Eight Colors, Astro Smurf himself.

You wonder if his skin is stuck on the blue setting or something. Like, seriously. What is up with that?

"I have an offer that you can't refuse," he tells you, and that's when it all falls apart for you because oh no, now he's making pop culture references.

Who approved this? You do not remember giving Astro Smurf permission to do this. This is your shtick, if it's going to be anybody's.

At least your friends are here, so you can sort of, like, spread the crap around and you don't have to deal with all of it yourself.

Oh dear Stan Lee, he's opening his mouth again. What's it going to be this time?

MARCO: Be Astro Smurf

**You are now Astro Smurf. **

Your name is, or was, AZURE LEVEL, SEVEN SPAR, EXTENSION TWO, DOWN-MESSENGER, FORTY-ONE. This was a pretty unwieldy for casual use, though, so you were also called TOOMIN. You like this one better.

You don't deserve it.

You kind of live in a BLACK HOLE, but that is PRETTY COMPLICATED STUFF, honestly. In fact, you are pretty sure that if you chose to tell your whole backstory to these kids it would take TWO HUNDRED PAGES to get to that part, and are even surer that none of you have that kind of time. You'll probably tell it to a DEAD PERSON some other time. They always have time.

You like the word TIME, which has two really nice-sounding consonants at either of it and is also PRETTY IMPORTANT. You are very big on meddling in the development of ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS, which you are pretty good at because you once played a lot of sessions of a game called just that. This was back when people called you Toomin, but now the games are SERIOUS because they're played with real people. You played under the name ELLIMIST, which you chose because it sounded KIND OF BREEZY.

Right now probably seem like a DASTARD, which you think is a kind of upper class-sounding bastard. In your defense, you do this because your opposite number is a RED-EYED PLANET GUY called CRAYAK. His interest, just so long as we're dumping heaps of information here, is building a UNIVERSE OF CONFLICT, PAIN, and TERROR, and whoever kicked the bum out of the galaxy that he came from was content to leave Crayak alone like some kind of INTERGALACTIC TRAILER TRASH.

But who are you kidding? You are definitely a DASTARD. A really big one, as long as you're being honest here. Just a nicer one than the other guy is.

After all, you were playing ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS FOR REAL before you ever met the RED-EYED PLANET GUY.

You take a moment, longer for you than for them, before you speak again. You take this, to allow them to speak between themselves and to allow you to gather your determination together.

It is as once so much easier and harder to do this, seeing them in the flesh. Not just theirs, but to see them, if only partly, from the vantage point of flesh yourself. Or something like unto it.

"So tired..." You smile. "Do you remember when I offered you a way out?" you ask them. It seems so long ago to you, but things happen differently to you than to them. "I said that you and your loved ones could be relocated on another world, safe from the Yeerk invasion."

"We didn't agree then," Jake says. "What makes you think we'll do it now?"

You shake your head.

"This time it's different. What I want to know is, how much do you love this world?" Your eyes settle briefly on Aximili, but you move on before he notices.

"Enough to stay and fight the Yeerks, Ellimist," Cassie responds immediately.

"To beat them, of course. To save your world," you say, nodding gently. "But what if the way to win lay in _not_ fighting?"

Cassie's face betrays her confusion. "H-how..."

_The Yeerks will never leave unless they are forced_ Aximili asserts.

"This is true," you acknowledge. "But Crayak and I have come to an... understanding. We have made a deal, one that should satisfy you."

"Since when is Crayak making deals?" Marco asks. "I don't remember the Howlers being very diplomatic."

"As things are going, you _will_ win," you tell them. "Within the limits of the rules there is nothing that Crayak can do to win. I have convinced him of this."

"So he's just going to make the Yeerks leave or something?"

"As with all things, both of us must give up something of value."

Understanding starts to reflect on Jake's face. "Us. You want to give us up... But why?"

"You will win. Have you thought yet about how I have said nothing of the number of casualties? The _cost?_"

You can feel Cassie's thoughts reverberating. She feels guilty for not having done so. She carries so much, and so undeservedly. But that is how they all are.

That is why you must do this.

"Some of you will die and some of you will live. After you have defeated the invasion you will be in a position to hinder other plans of Crayak's. As you will, if you are not removed."

"So by taking us out now, Crayak doesn't lose anything that he won't anyway," Jake muses. "What about the other Yeerks?"

"Our deal does not extend past what happens here, but the Yeerks need your world very badly. They need many more host bodies than they have, and if they lose Earth then they will not be able to recover from the loss. It will take time but their defeat will be inevitable." You pause. "It will not help that most of the leadership stationed here, including Visser Three, will not survive."

"So the Yeerks get the boot here and pretty soon they're going to lose everywhere else, too?" Rachel asks. You confirm this before she continues. "Alright. I'm in." She slips her hands into her pockets. "So what's Crayak going to do with us?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

You love the surprise that you see on her face.

"You are leaving, but Crayak is not taking you. You will be beyond his reach." You retrieve six CDs from the air and hold them between the fingers of a hand that suddenly looks slightly less human. "You could call it a game, if Crayak and I may call our war a game. But if it is so then it is a deeper game, a deeper game from before the dawn of time. Older than this universe.

"It does not belong in this universe. Indeed, it took Crayak and I both to retrieve the power that is in these CDs and reconstruct it so that it could work, despite its... foreignness."

So much blood.

"What is it?"

"It has been called by many names. Sbarn. Scarb. Sgrub. But the name that is intended for this world," you tell them, "is Sburb."

You tell yourself that the screaming you hear is only in your head. This is true, but it does nothing to help.

_What is its purpose?_ Aximili asks.

"It will bring you to a new place. There, you will have one last evil to destroy." You give one of the CDs to Rachel; her hand was already outstretched from the instant that you revealed the game to them. Jake and Marco follow. The others remain thoughtful, not rejecting it but still too focused on listening to think to take a CD from you. "You will defeat it. You will save many worlds as you do so and then, having proven yourself worthy, you will make your final journey and travel to a new universe totally beyond the reach of this one. That is what Sburb is for: the making of universes. And Crayak will never be able to reach them."

You distribute the last CDs.

"Even if you do not succeed, you will have defeated the Yeerks simply by agreeing to play the game. But if you do succeed, and I am confident in your abilities, then you will have ensured that, no matter what happens here, there will be a universe that will never know Crayak. A more peaceful universe, if you are willing to nurture it."

There is little more to be said. You leave them soon after, warning them that they would have to begin the game at separate houses and telling them that all the rest, they can learn on the way.

You are _proud_ of them, these six children that so readily agreed to leave their world forever to save it. So, so proud of them.

And so ashamed of yourself.

You did not lie to them about your motives, or the game, or its consequences. Not exactly. But you left many things unsaid. They would have refused your offer if they knew the terrible cost that would have to be paid, so you made the decision for them and told them only those things that would make it seem almost their duty to play the game.

Your name is not TOOMIN. You do not deserve that name. The face that once claimed it would turn his face away from yours in shame. You are only ELLIMIST now, the great PLAYER OF GAMES. You are not a good person. You know this. You do not deny it. This is why you are here today, seeking a small parcel of redemption through the salvation of six children that have already been hurt so much and will only continue to suffer if they do not leave this game of yours that you and Crayak are playing.

But how can you realize any kind of redemption for yourself when you are willing to purchase their salvation with an ocean of blood?

(You tell yourself that the screaming you hear is only in your head. This is true, but it is a presage of the screaming that will shortly come to pass.)

ELLIMIST: Be the Dying Girl


	2. I Dont See an Easy Way to Get out ofThis

_A/N This story, by the way, will update about once a month. i say "about" because sometimes it'll be twice a month. Won't be less, though. _

_Oh, and if anybody is even halfway decent with sprite art (even halfway would be better than me) and would be willing to help me spruce this up, their help would be repaid in cookies. Or stories. I'll write a short fic for you. Pick your poison, your fandom and themes and characters and all, and I'll get it done. _

**Disk one: Genesis**

**Chapter two: I Don't See an Easy Way to Get out of This**

Your name is CASSIE, which is why Marco had to change his WAA username. Your own username, by the way, is Zoe249. That's kind of important, but we won't say why just yet. There are other things on your mind. We'll just say you're keeping a secret.

We could talk about your INTERESTS right now, like how much you love ANIMALS and the AWESOME FARM that your family owns… owned. Yeah. You're having some trouble with tenses right now. And that's kind of… kind of why you don't want to think about that stuff right now.

It all seems kind of POINTLESS, thinking about the past. Especially with what happened after you started playing Sburb. It has been SEVENTEEN DAYS since you and your friends entered a strange place called THE MEDIUM. You all found yourselves separated and on SMALL PLANETS WITH ODD NAMES and no explanation for how your houses, which had been brought with you, were still running on electricity when they seemed to be cut off from any kind of power supply. There's still internet, too.

It HURTS just to wrap your mind around it.

Lots of other things are HURTING, too.

It had been going so well, you had thought. There were people here, of a sort. You mean, they were TRANSLUCENT WOLVES that kept going on about the periodic table and E=MC2 and things like that and they barely ever SHUT UP, but they were still people, you guess, and you were making pretty progress in figuring out what the problem was in this place and how to fix it. So had everyone else, it seemed.

But now…

You guess it had been destined from the start. It was all in your title, wasn't it?

Your name is CASSIE, and you are the MAID OF BLOOD, or so the wolves told you after they stopped TALKING ABOUT COPERNICUS. You were on a planet called the LAND OF HOLLY AND KNIVES, imperiled by a foul and all-hungering DENIZEN called FENRIR. It was your DUTY to save this world and RESTORE WHAT WAS MISSING.

If only you could have figured out what that was in time to do something about it.

Instead… No, _of course_ you were the Maid of Blood. Because here you are, bleeding out your life like a busted pipe. You don't know whether to feel grateful or regretful that Jake is able to be here with you. He had told you that it was so depressing, where the game had sent him. So he came for some better company than a bunch of MAGENTA SIBERIAN TIGERS that were, apparently, worse conversationalists than the animals on your world. And instead he gets to watch you die on a stone slab.

CASSIE: Tell him. Even if it HURTS.

"R-Rachel…" you tell him.

"Don't worry. She's okay. I talked with her."

You're trying to morph. If only you could morph, then all of your wounds could be healed and you'd be back in fighting shape. And you _can_ morph, you really can, but it's taking so _long_ and you don't understanding why.

"No. Not that." You try to shake your head but barely move it at all. "She attacked me."

She must have done something to you. You can feel the change but it's taking so long. You won't make it in time. But she needed you to last. To die slowly, not all at once. And she destroyed your computer, even though it's too far for you to get to now. Even if you were capable of walking anymore.

It HURTS so much.

CASSIE: Keep talking.

"You have to tell the others," you whisper.

"What?"

"Sh-she t-told me…" you stammer, the words hard because of what they mean, not the physical strain that it takes to make them. "T-Tobias. She killed him." The silence hangs over the two of you for a second as you take another breath.

Oh God, it HURTS so much. Just to breathe.

CASSIE: Keep on talking. Keep talking. Keep talking.

"Marco… and Ax. They don't know."

Why did it have to happen like this?

"But I…" Jake swallows. "You'll die alone."

There are no wolves in sight. They fled from the very sight of Rachel. Her jacket, stained with blood.

You had thought something was wrong. Instead she pinned you to wall with knives that she had taken from the trees outside. She twisted them and forced them deeper, talking to you all the time, talking like you weren't even there and then suddenly you were, as if she didn't even know for sure if you could hear her or if she was even saying anything at all or it was just in her own head.

Tobias was dead.

She didn't even morph to do it.

And then she dragged you here, left you here to die like a sacrifice to some bloodthirsty god. Slowly. She told you how long it would take. Down to the minute, so long as you wouldn't move and make it worse.

You had to beg Jake not to move you. Moving HURT so much. Even to talk.

CASSIE: Ignore the pain. Keep talking.

CASSIE: You have to keep talking.

And now you have to beg him to leave you. "They need you. They don't know."

You close your eyes when he leaves, so that you don't have to watch him go. So that your vision goes away altogether instead of slowly, slowly fading into black.

The darkness is a blank slate for your mind and it conjures up memories. Of plains of holly, trees with knives hanging on their branches like steel fruit and climbing vines with striped berries and shrubs that glow in the dark. Wolves with clipboards, hanging on your every word whenever they stop talking for long enough to notice that you actually exist. Wolves with _clipboards_, and sometimes even graduation outfits with those silly square hats.

The farm where your family lived. Slowly being overgrown by polka-dotted climbing vines and some purple moss kind of thing that smells like chocolate but tastes horrible, like radishes or something.

It's so beautiful. All of it. Everything is beautiful and everything… everything HURTS.

The farm where your family lived. Lived.

The meteors.

You remember the meteors.

And it was all your fault. Everyone's. But sharing the blame doesn't make it weigh any less.

CASSIE: Be Jake. Save your friends.


	3. And You'll Begin to Wonder Why You Came

**Chapter three: And You'll Begin to Wonder Why You Came**

Your name is JAKE BERENSON, and you are the PRINCE OF VOID. After Ax found out about _that_, well, there went any chance of getting him to not call you "Prince Jake."

Pretty hopeless title, now that you come to think about it. What _were_ you thinking, believing that, oh, maybe things were going to go well? Since when does your luck just _finally start turning up_ like that?

Nothing's gone right for you since you found out that your world was being invaded by PARASITIC BRAIN SLUGS.

You like BASKETBALL, you like COMICS, all of the things that normal kids should like. But you're not normal. After all, you can turn into animals. How many normal kids can do that? How many normal kids have waged a six-person guerilla war against aliens?

Things had always been a little crazy for you since you learned about the invasion. And then you found out that it was all a part of some kind of COSMIC BOARDGAME being played by effective gods. And then… And then they gave _you_ a game.

It's been SEVENTEEN DAYS since you started playing Sburb. SEVENTEEN DAYS since your world ended and your dog, Homer, started talking. SEVENTEEN DAYS since you were transported to a world called the Land of Steel and Bone. There were SIBERIAN TIGERS there, and they talked and had magenta-colored fur and passed copies of Machiavelli back and forth in huddled, whispering groups.

You didn't like how they would stare at you. Not like they were hungry. Or hateful. It was like they were two handshakes short of worshiping you, and something made you afraid to find out why. And the world that you were on. The Land of _Steel and Bone_. Is it any wonder that you needed a break and decided to see Cassie in person? It's a good thing that space here wasn't like space in the universe you came from. There was air in space here, and you were just one Peregrine Falcon morph and a few hours from seeing your friends.

But Cassie was missing and her house was wrecked when you arrived. Rachel was there, blood on her hair and hands, but you didn't notice that, for all the blood, there wasn't a scratch on her. She told you that Cassie had been hurt and told you where to go.

You didn't question it. You just had to get to Cassie. And that's where you found out that Rachel had attacked her. Had as good as killed her, left her to bleed out slowly and somehow unable to morph quickly enough to heal the damage. Had killed Tobias before her.

It was clear to both of you what Rachel had done. Cassie was alive to keep you occupied. You had to warn Ax and Marco before it was too late, even if that meant abandoning Cassie. But there was one more sick choice that you were being forced to make.

Time was limited. Rachel was long gone by the time you had found Cassie, and you didn't know who was next. Cassie's computer had been broken, no doubt to keep you from messaging Ax and Marco from it. Your own computer was practically as far away as your friends were.

Ax or Marco? Who to fly to? Ax might have been more capable of defending himself. Even if he couldn't morph, he still had his tail blade. But what if that wasn't enough? Marco was your best friend. Rachel would surely have guessed that you might have chosen him over Ax. There were a hundred reasons that she might have chosen either of them.

Second-guessing, third-guessing, fourth-guessing yourself, you find yourself standing at the threshold of Marco's house. And you find it empty.

You lose. Marco's gone already.

But there isn't even the scene of a struggle.

JAKE: Turn around.

Rachel is standing five feet behind you. She looks different somehow. Her face seems more weathered and tired than it was earlier today. Her eyes are wide open, barely blinking, as if she's forcing herself to run on fumes. And her clothes…

Her shirt is clean from blood now, if a little scuffed up, but from the middle of her calves down she's absolutely soaked with blood. It's as if she had just waded through a river of gore.

JAKE: Get out. Now.

"I wouldn't stay there for much longer," she says. Her breathing is heavy, in and out, in and out, but she speaks as calmly as a clear sky.

JAKE: Get away from the house!

Rachel's gone.

She's right beside you.

You blink and she's gone again, you're gone, your chest _hurts_, and Marco's house… Marco's house is in flames.

Your ears hurt.

His house. There was an explosion.

Rachel's gone.

She's where she had been all along.

She looks at the wreckage, the flames and the broken frame, half-collapsed and continuing to crumble inward, and then looks back at you. The corners of her mouth tip up. "You chose wrong. How sad."

You force yourself to stand up. "Then I…" Wait. She was here too. She couldn't have gotten to Ax and back this quickly. You can't begin to imagine why, but she must have dallied or stuck around here.

Ax is still okay.

"I don't know why you've snapped," you say. "You know I would have helped if I could have been there. Whatever happened. But I have to stop you. I can't let you kill Ax too."

She laughs.

She actually _laughs_.

"You know, you'd think that it'd be hard, wouldn't you?" she says musingly. "Sleeping. But counting corpses seems to work just as well as counting sheep." Rachel shrugs, not looking you in the eyes. "I remember every single body, even if it's getting hard to keep count."

"H-how hard can it be?" There's only the six of you.

"You have no idea what I'm doing."

How can she lose track of half a dozen? Unless… Has she been killing other people too? How could you be so selfish, to only think of your friends as being in danger?

You struggle to get the question past your lips. "_Why?_"

What happened? What happened to her?

"Haven't I always been your good little murderer? Maybe I have gotten a pit bull morph. 'Sic him, Rachel!' Right? _Right?_" Rachel closes her eyes for a second before she starts again. "This is for your own good!" She smiles dangerously, teeth bared. "Sh-should I kill your tigers, too? I could tell you what they're doing but you never believe me. You- you _never_ believe me."

JAKE: Stop talking. Just… go away. Stop talking to her.

No. You can't.

You have to figure out what happened to her. Before you take care of her, you have to know why.

This is so wrong.

"I know what you're thinking," she mutters. "Stop me. Kill me. Put me down. Like an animal! Well you can go to Hell, Jake. _How do you expect to defeat me when I have already killed you?" _she roars.

"I'm alive," you tell her. She's alive, you're alive, maybe everybody else is dead but she's talking, she's _talking_, and maybe you can figure something out. No more killing. No more blood.

"My hands are clean," she mutters. "You have _no_ idea. No idea. Everybody lies. Everybody lies…" she continues to murmur. "You don't know. What Cassie's done. I'm worried about Marco. He's scaring me."

The way that she's talking, it's like she's barely aware that you're there.

"Rachel…"

"No, you don't get it. You don't end it here. You don't kill me or save or fix or stop me. You don't save Ax. Ax will be dead before you ever get to him." Rachel grins. She looks as if there's nothing that's ever made her as happy as the thought of his death. "I'm just stalling you so that his body has more time to cool. That's very important," she says quickly. "You can't go messing that up."

JAKE: Run away. Right now. Before she can spill anything else.

JAKE: She's just talking nonsense. Get out. Save Ax.

You need to get out of here. Whatever she's planning to do to Ax, you need to get to him as quickly as you can.

But you can't morph, you realize. You've been trying to avoid that thought this entire time. Trying to avoid the feeling of weakness and sheer vulnerability that would come with consciously acknowledging it. But it's there. Even though you can feel the change, it's happening so slowly. You could starve to death before you completed morphing, you think, but you can feel the sensation all the same.

"Why not kill me?"

"Because it isn't time for me to kill you yet, stupid. I'll shut up the voices for you. But not yet."

"The voices?"

"Whispers. Suggestions. Thoughts that aren't yours but maybe seem like it. Don't quite belong. Weird. Wake up," she says. "You need to _wake up_. Wake up," she repeats. "Wake up. WAKE UP. Wake up wake up wake up…" Her eyes are starting to fill with tears and a hand has worked its way into gripping a fistful of hair like a life preserver, and it's becoming obvious that she's only half aware of you at best. "No. Don't look at me like that. I know how you're looking at me. Stop it. I'm not crazy. I am not some kind of nut."

"What?"

"They're coming." She swallows. "With fire and fangs and steel they are coming. Wake _up_, Jake. Wake up."

"Who's coming?"

Rachel pulls out a knife. Your muscles tense but she doesn't move to attack.

With how she moved before, and didn't move, how she appeared and disappeared and seemed to just _be_, here and then there, you wonder if you would have any chance of reacting anyway.

"I didn't want to do it this way, but I guess I have to," she says, turning the knife over and over in her hands. You recognize it as one of the knives that was growing on Cassie's planet. "That's the way the story goes. This is the only way it works."

The knife sinks into her stomach. It tears through cloth and flesh as she slides it from one side to the other and her clothing, all of it now, turns red and brown and every shade in-between. She falls to her knees, forces it deeper.

She is silent, no sound but that of the metal going through flesh. But you can see the scream in her eyes. The silence that says that she has endured so much worse than this and that none of it matters to her enough to let out so much as a gasp.

Before you can react, as if it had happened in the space of a second and a year, the scream in her eyes has gone away. The light goes away too, and she falls backward, bent in a position too uncomfortable for any living person to maintain for long.

Any living person.

Before you realize what's happening, your morphing goes back to normal and you're looking at your cousin, your dying… your dead cousin, through the eyes of a falcon.

Ax. You have to get to Ax. You can bury Marco and Rachel and everybody else later. You have to get to Ax first.

JAKE: Be Ax. Talk to your friend.


End file.
